Obama operative David Axelrod hired by NBC as “political analyst”

With Barack Obama safely re-elected, it’s time for top hatchet man David Axelrod to pass through the old revolving door and become a “news analyst,” as reported by the New York Times:

NBC News announced Tuesday that it had hired David Axelrod, the chief political strategist for both of Barack Obama’s presidential elections, as a full-time political analyst for the news organization.

He will appear on news programs for NBC’s broadcast network and for its cable news channel MSNBC. That channel has positioned itself aggressively as the liberal counterpart to the conservative-leaning Fox News Channel.

Mr. Axelrod’s hiring at MSNBC emulates Fox’s hiring of Karl Rove, who filled the similar political post for George W. Bush.

The path from political adviser to expert commentator on television has been well trod. George Stephanopoulos, who advised President Clinton , joined ABC News as a journalist. He is, of course, now the anchor of “Good Morning, America” for ABC. And MSNBC already employs Steve Schmidt, the senior strategist for the losing campaign of Senator John McCain.

Well, yes, but didn’t Rove, Schmidt, and even Stephanopolous embark upon their journalistic careers after their candidate left office (or in McCain’s case, concluded his campaign?) Forgive me if I don’t recall the exact timing on the Fox News hiring of Karl Rove as a full-time analyst, but I’m fairly certain it was either very late in the Bush Administration, or after its effective conclusion.

Obama, on the other hand, is still President… and the media is right this moment crying itself to sleep with stories about how easily Obama plays them, even though they try so awfully hard to keep their objectivity corsets tightly laced.